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HIGHLY CHARGED HYBRID
CHRISSY Van Dyke of
Birmingham's finest dance exponents PLUTONIK, learnt a thing or two about
the perils of leading a rock'n'roll lifestyle at an early age.
Within moments of playing one of her first gigs, she found herself expelled!
"We did a school gig and much drink was taken," she laughs on reflection.
"When the headmaster started on me due to my inebriated state I threw
some rather colourful adjectives his way, and was restrained by several
friends before laying him out! If you've gotta go, do it with style I
say."
After several years gigging around the UK and Europe, Chrissy was pointed
towards Alan Rowe and James D in '97 who were busy experimenting with
drum and bass styled tracks in their basement studio.
"They were looking for a vocalist to complete a dance project," she says
of her Plutonik cohorts. "They approached me because a mutual friend told
them I was a singer... the rest is history, although they got more than
they bargained for! The sound was reborn from what we did together."
Out of their initial sessions came a tough dance hybrid that fused the
hard grooves of dance music with the ambience of jazz. Less Portishead
and more Red Snapper, but it was not a concious decision.
"We all have an individual take on what music we would like to make, so
instead of compromising all the time, we simply include all the ideas
we like best. Early trial and error lead us to this sound, and we all
like it a lot!" she says, citing Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell as influences.
Following a limited edition 12 inch promo', Junglotrane/Filter, the bands
debut album, Prime Numbers, was released last month, and the band have
been busy over the summer taking the expanded line-up to Europe and Scandanavia
where their studio based sound has been developing into a tight, powerful
live groove.
Dave
Freak, Go2Birmingham, August 1999
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